News

Clean Up Australia Day for Youth and Schools

Cowaramup Primary School

Cowaramup Primary School children collected 20.7 kilograms of litter on Clean Up Australia Day

On 1 March, forty-four excited students from years three and six at Cowaramup Primary School carried out a clean-up of their school and surrounds. Keep Australia Beautiful Council WA (KABC) representatives headed down south and attended to help with the clean-up and audit of the litter.

On first glance, the school looked litter free. However, once the children began looking around with their eagle eyes, litter was seen and collected during a one-hour sweep of cracks, crevices, soils and surfaces.

The hard work removed 20.7 kilograms of litter from the school environment including 1,614 pieces of plastic, which was about a third of the total litter items collected.

Some interesting items found included a tyre, wooden plank and four single, unmatched shoes.

Schools that are keen to carry out clean-ups and learn about littering behaviour, management and prevention can register for KABC’s Clean Schools Program.

Bathers Beach Fremantle Clean Up

Students from Australian Islamic College and other participants celebrate after the clean-up event at Bathers Beach.

Australian Islamic College Thornlie staff and students, together with KABC, joined forces to scour and clean up litter at Fremantle’s Bathers Beach. It was the second year in a row that the students had contributed to Clean Up Australia Day by carrying out a clean-up event at that location.

This year, about 80 enthusiastic year seven to 10 students along with teachers and KABC staff volunteered an hour and a half of their time to collect, audit and dispose of about 13 kilos of rubbish. It was a fantastic effort by all involved and the litter collected included parking tickets; many cigarette butts; plastic bottles; food and beverage containers; broken glass; a toy car and a travel pillow.

After the event, High School Coordinator Idroz Shah said “it was evident that the students benefited from the event in raising awareness for the environment as they were able to see first-hand the amount of trash that pollutes our beaches and green spaces. It was truly a valued learning experience.”

Western Australians who are interested in carrying out clean-ups at community spaces can join KABC’s Adopt-a-Spot program. Adopt-a-Spot is an anti-litter program that engages volunteers (individuals, community groups, business groups) to undertake litter clean-ups of designated sites, like Bathers Beach, on a one-off or ongoing basis. Information is available – see Adopt-a-Spot.